


Foresight Can't Cure Grief

by Royalwriter



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Angst, Divination, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-20
Updated: 2018-02-20
Packaged: 2019-03-21 12:58:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,322
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13741380
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Royalwriter/pseuds/Royalwriter
Summary: Magnus isn't a spellcaster. And so when he wakes up from a nightmare in which Julia is stripped from him, he gives it little weight. Until the destroyed visage of Raven's Roost lies in front of him.





	Foresight Can't Cure Grief

**Author's Note:**

> So, celebreultimaverba and I were talking, and they brought up that they always thought it would be interesting if Magnus had some divination powers he didn't know about. One thing led to another, and here's a very self indulgent angst drabble about how those powers might have affected Raven's Roost.

Magnus didn’t have an ounce of magic in his body. He couldn’t even pull off the same parlor tricks that other fights could. No sparks would shoot from his fingers with the right words, the only shield he could conjure was the one he kept strapped to his back when he fought. And Magnus certainly couldn’t predict the future.

And so, the dream he wakes up screaming from is just that, a dream. A nightmare really, Julia’s body crumbled under rubble, Governor Kalen having returned to enact his revenge. All of Raven’s Roost stripped from him in an instant. _It’d been so realistic though._ He felt every piece of stone underneath him, his lungs labored from the grit in the air. Every part of it fit exactly what Magnus knew disasters looked like and so even the sight of Julia next to him doesn’t calm him right away.

She wakes up when he does of course. They’ve become so finely attuned to the others needs, wants, very existence that the slightest shift in his breathing would have woken her. He marveled at that often.

How two people could learn every part of each other well enough to almost be one, and yet still never grow tired of existing together. Love astonished and defined him so constantly.

“Mags? What’s going on?” She blinks at him through worried eyes, moving to wrap him in her arms.

Before he responds Magnus wraps his own arms around her, pulling her close as she tightens her grip and burying his head in her shoulder. She’s here and alive. Julia is alive and the dream meant nothing.

“I- uh nightmare. Dreamed that I lost you, that I came back from something and you were dead- and your body was there and-” his voice catches in his throat and he realizes that he’s crying.

“Hey- hey, shh,” Julia starts to rub small circles on Magnus’ back and kisses the top of his head, “I’m right here Magnus, I’m right here and I’m alive, and I love you. And it was just a bad dream.”

Something about that feels wrong though. It didn’t feel like just a dream. It felt so much realer than any nightmare he’s every had.

“It was just so realistic, normally with nightmares other things happen too or I see you die but this time it was just your body and I could feel you, but it wasn’t you anymore and I was so aware of that-” he’s still stammering, but her heartbeat tight against his chest is calming it somewhat.

“I know. I know. It felt real, and that makes sense. You had a nightmare love, I’d be more worried if you weren’t having nightmares after everything that happened with Kalen. I have them too, you know that. Hells, I think we all do. I’m here though, and I love you. Want me to sing to you until you can get back to sleep?”

Even in the darkness of their room Magnus can sense the small smile on Julia’s face and he adjusts. He’s still holding her tightly, but there’s less urgency in it.

“Yeah, thank you. You always know just what I need. I love you,”

“I love you more than I could ever possibly put into words Magnus Burnsides, and I’ll always be right here. It'll take a lot more than some nightmare to take me from you,” she says and his heart swells.

“And I’ll always come back,” he responds.

“You better,” with that Julia shifts into singing a soft old lullaby. Her voice could soothe any hurt that Magnus ever felt, and this time is no different. He's powerless to her charms.

Still though, even as he drifts towards sleep his dream haunts him. Something about it still hangs too viscerally in his mind to be easily forgotten.

* * *

 

Life doesn’t stop just because Magnus had a nightmare. He still has projects to do, a competition to compete in. He gets up from the large nightmare and lives through smaller ones every day.

And so, the morning after the dream Magnus wakes as usual. He goes about his business, though he does stick closer to Julia than usual. Takes moments in the middle of every day activities to admire her, to touch her and hold her. Until eventually she chases him out of her hair with laughter. Julia has things to get done, and so does Magnus, and they aren’t the same things. And in that manor life goes on.

The dream fades to the back of his mind. The next couple of nights are dreamless. His days are filled with work. There’s a huge woodworking competition coming up, and Magnus builds a beautiful chair to enter. Julia isn’t comfortable leaving the shop for that many days and he understands that he has to leave without her.

It’s just that once the wagon is packed and he needs to leave Magnus can’t quite make himself. A wave of dread washes over him. It anchors him to the ground at the door to their cabin. He doesn’t make an attempt to push past the dread at first, instead going for what he foolishly assumes will be an easier target.

“Julia you know what, I don’t think I should go. This competition isn’t even that major, not worth the trip out there at all,” he tries to act casual.

“Magnus, you’ve been preparing for this for a month, you were excited. What’s really going on?” Julia sees through him in a second.

“Okay, you caught me. It’s that stupid nightmare I had a couple of weeks ago. I just can’t stop worrying that something will happen while I’m gone. I can’t rid of this feeling,”

“You’re just anxious Mags, you’re worried about the show and it’s compounding with the stress. And you haven’t been gone since Kalen. I’ll be okay, I can take care of myself you know. I’m far from a damsel in distress,”

“I know, Jules, I know. It just- It doesn’t feel like regular anxiety I don’t know. I love you,” Magnus takes Julia in his arms and kisses her another time.

Julia pulls away from him gently, smiling up at him and brushing hair out of his eyes.

“I know you do Magnus. I love you too, so much. You’ve told me a thousand times today though, and you have a competition to get to,” Julia pushes him away and takes a step back into the entranceway of their house.

“I love you,” Magnus can’t help but call after her as he gets into the wagon.

“I love you too Magnus Burnsides, and I’ll be right here when you come back with that winning ribbon,”

She waves him off and the wagon leaves and the gnawing in Magnus’ gut only grows worse. Something is going to go wrong but that’s irrational, and he has no basis for it and so Magnus leaves Raven’s Roost behind. He tries to put it out of his mind. Julia’s right. He's nervous and putting too much stock in one bad dream. Magnus isn't a seer, has never accurately predicted the future before. This won't be the first time he does. It'll proven to him when he returns home and Julia is still there. They can laugh about it together then.

* * *

 

Magnus had two days left before the convention ended. That is, until he wakes up soaked with sweat and tears clutches at his sheets. No specific dream rouses him, just an anxiety that settles deep into his core and won’t leave him alone. He can’t make it through the rest of the day, and chases down a wagon leaving by noon.

The driver scowls at him for a moment, a short dwarven woman who clearly has better places to be.

“I need to go to Raven’s Roost right now,” there’s a quivering in his voice.

“That’s half a days travel out of my path, why should I drop everything I’m doing to take you there?” she says.

“Please, I’ll do anything, I’ll give you all the coin I have on me. I just need to get to Raven’s Roost,” Magnus pulls out his coin purse and hands it to her without thinking. All he knows is that he needs to be home right this instance.

The dwarf counts the coins and takes in his frantic appearance then shakes her head. “Alright, get in. Don’t make me regret this though okay?”

“Thank you, thank you so much,” Magnus climbs into the chart and that should solve the worry but it doesn’t. If anything it only gets worse as they grow closer to Raven’s Roost. There’s no reason for him to believe it but he knows that something is wrong.

His mind keeps flicking back to the dream. To how vivid it had been. To the way in which each detail of it echoed how it would process it in real life. How nothing shifted in front of him. Magnus didn’t know any magic but if he did he would call it a prophecy. Except this had to be nothing. If it was a prophecy then it was true. And it couldn’t be true.

Except then they past the point where the structures of Raven’s Roost should be looming over the horizon and there’s nothing.

And they arrive at where the gates should be and in front of Magnus is nothing but still smoking rubble. Raven’s Roost, his home, is gone.

Magnus rushes in.

He’s out of the carriage before the dwarf can say anything to him, sprinting down the streets in long strides despite the rubble hindering his path. He keeps moving up until he reaches where his home once stood and that’s when his knees give out.

His knees fall out from under him and before he can process it he’s digging through the rubble. His hands scrap against the rock and his knuckles bleed underneath him but he doesn’t stop. He can’t stop because Julia has to be trapped under there, has to be lodged under rubble that fell just right, still alive and waiting desperately for him.

The sun’s sunk low in the sky when a hand settles heavily onto his back and all but drags him out of the rubble. Magnus doesn’t react even as his body is moved, but after a moment he turns to acknowledge whoever has dragged him from his task.

“They’re gone Magnus. Cleared everyone out a while ago. There’s nothing left here, the survivors moved on,” he’s been found by a small old woman, Angela, who lived on the edge of the town and would only come in to sell herbs or other spell components.

“What happened? Who did this?” his voice rings hollow, his words hollower still.

“Governor Kalen came back, guess we didn’t quite manage to scare him off after all. I don’t know kind of spells he was packing but- He did something to the support columns and the whole town fell. It happened so fast that there wasn’t much to be done. The survivors moved the bodies earlier in the day and left for another town. I stayed back in case anyone came looking,” she settles one hand on his shoulder.

“Julia, is she okay? Is she with the survivors?” Magnus knows the answer before he asks the question.

“I’m sorry,” He doesn’t hear what she says after that, loses her voice to some mindless wail that overtakes him. The next thing Magnus knows he’s in front of a fire with his hands wrapped in bandages and Angela sitting next to him.

She’s staring at him over a cup of tea, and numbly he notices there’s one sitting next to him as well.

“Are you coherent yet? I got you back here but it was like leading a ghost. I worried you were going to keel over on me and I’d have to leave you outside for the wolves,” she says.

Magnus blinks at her slowly before standing. “I have to make this right. I should have known, should never have left,”

She shakes her head at him with faint concern. “You couldn’t have known my boy, no one saw this coming. No one knew that even Kalen had this much rage in his heart,”

“I did know!” he says, the dream playing over the scene he’d come home too. So much more similar than it had any right to be. “I had a dream two weeks ago about this, I didn’t think anything of because I’m not a seer but I should have known better! I should have been here to stop this,” he says.

“You had a dream about this? Sometimes it takes events of this magnitude to trigger divination magic in someone, it sounds like you could be a seer. I could train you in how to let the visions in and understand them. You could be a powerful prophet,” she says, taking a step towards him.

Magnus shakes his head and backs towards the door. She doesn’t understand.

“No, no I can’t be. It’s a fluke, or it was a fluke and even if it wasn’t it didn’t tell me enough to save her. If this magic was worth anything it would have helped me save her. Thank you for your offer but I have to go. Thank you for taking me here, I need to find the survivors and I need to find Kalen,” and Magnus turns, and Magnus runs out. He heads straight for the town where the few remaining residents of Raven’s Roost are.

Magnus vows then and there that he will never learn divination. No gift could replace what was taken him from him. No gift could replace Julia, no gift could replace the life that he had. Magnus doesn’t know magic. Sparks won’t fly from his hands with a simple word. But Magnus knows revenge. And he knows how to keep his word.

 


End file.
